Abstract
Urban complexity can be measured by the numerical and spatial diversity of activities in a territory. Just as biodiversity can be measured in a natural ecosystem, diversity indices can be applied to urban settings. Urban diversity presents higher values in areas where there is a greater number of (economic, institutional, and social) activities with a high degree of differentiation between them. This study seeks to investigate the potential of applying an urban diversity index in a specific case study: namely, the city of Barcelona (Spain), known for the orthogonal grid plan of its Eixample district. Results show that the municipal territory of Barcelona as a whole is characterized by highly differentiated spaces according to their urban diversity values. Specifically, it is the Eixample district that presents the highest values of urban diversity, reflecting the densification of its morphology and its urban commercial policies.
Highlights
The relationship between matter, energy, and information constitutes the physical and biological basis of open ecosystems [1,2,3]
The study we report here is consistent with this desire to combine geospatial data and the measurement of human activities to understand urban complexity
The measurement of urban complexity requires calculating information that carries a message, and this can be achieved by measuring the diversity of urban legal entity (ULE) that carry out some kind of economic, institutional, or social activity
Summary
The relationship between matter, energy, and information constitutes the physical and biological basis of open ecosystems [1,2,3] In these natural systems, most of the information is found in the genetic package of living things, while, in human systems, in addition to the genetic package, we find additional information that serves to distinguish us in terms of quantity and quality. Most of the information is found in the genetic package of living things, while, in human systems, in addition to the genetic package, we find additional information that serves to distinguish us in terms of quantity and quality This is the so-called cultural package, which contains all the information that is not contained in our genes [4,5,6]. Attempts to measure information and flows of information using monetary or energy units, or even those derived from information theory itself, have yet to yield sufficiently satisfactory results [7,8,9,10]
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